History
The NAVS of the UK is the world’s first anti-vivisection organization, founded in 1875 by Frances Power Cobbe and Toni Doran, a humanitarian who published many leaflets and articles opposing animal experiments, and gathered many notable people of the day to support our cause, including Queen Victoria and Lord Shaftesbury. Many of the social reformers of the day, working for children's rights and women's rights, supported the aims of the NAVS.
The Society was formed on 2 December 1875 in Victoria Street, London, under the name of the Victoria Street Society. At the time there were about 300 experiments on animals each year. Public opposition to vivisection led the Government to appoint the First Royal Commission on Vivisection in July 1875; it reported its findings on 8 January 1876, recommending that special legislation be enacted to control vivisection. This led to the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, which reached the statute book on 15 August 1876. This Act remained in force for 110 years, until it was replaced by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
The Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 legalised vivisection, as well as providing total secrecy to the vivisectors and to the laboratories, with no public accountability. The Home Office awarded licences to vivisectors in secret, the locations of laboratories were secret. No access was allowed, for any reason - whether Member of Parliament, media, public, or local authority - all were barred. And so, the numbers of animals used as well as the number of licences awarded rose year on year for a century, protected by successive governments and a silent scientific community.
However, opposition to vivisection also increased, and the Victoria Street Society grew in strength and influence and after a few years changed its name to the National Anti-Vivisection Society (6 October 1897).
In 1969 NAVS formed the International Association against Painful Experiments on Animals (IAAPEA).
In 1990 the Society, having outgrown the premises in Harley Street it had occupied since 1973, moved to Goldhawk Road, London, with a subsequent move in 2006 to Millbank Tower, London, where it currently operates from.
Read more about this topic: National Anti-Vivisection Society
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